An Overview of Education in India during COVID-19 Pandemic - Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

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Purpose – The Government of India has declared COVID-19 a pandemic and imposed lockdown throughout the country as a preventive measure from the infection. Almost every sector has witnessed a tough time during the crisis, including the education sector. The digital model of imparting education came into practice with online teaching and learning. This paper provides an overview of the education system during pandemic times. It discusses the opportunities and challenges faced by the stakeholders during online education in India in times of pandemic. Design/ Methodology/ Approach – The research undertakes the in-depth review of previous papers, articles, secondary sources – published and unpublished in the field. Findings – The findings revealed that the Indian government has put in a lot of effort to provide education online by providing numerous free digital platforms to cater to the educational needs of learners of different age groups. But, inaccessibility of the internet to all and unpreparedness of educational institutions in developing sound infrastructure, resources and untrained teachers for online mode of education emerged to be the major challenges. Practical Implications – The study’s findings can be insightful for the Higher Education Institutions and the teachers to remodel their educational pedagogies overcoming all challenges and well equip for successful implementation of future online or blended education and to deal efficiently with any such crisis in future. Originality/ Value – There have been numerous research studies on education during crisis times, but a few studies have been conducted in India focusing upon challenges and opportunities of imparting online education during COVID-19 times in India. The study will add to the existing exploratory data and fill in the gap by contributing to the literature related to online teaching and learning during the pandemic crisis.

Keywords: COVID-19, Pandemic, Online Education, Opportunities, Challenges

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